Reading through some old posts, I realized that I wrote about our horrid real estate ordeal but never updated the blogosphere about it later. And since I know everyone was waiting on pins and needles, wondering, "Did those nice people ever sell their house?", I thought I'd update. Grin.
After almost 2.5 years on the market, we got an offer in October 2010. It wasn't a terrible offer, but it was a contingency, meaning the buyers had to sell their house before they could close on ours. We accepted it with the understanding that we'd take another, non-contingent offer should one come up. (Meaning we continued to have showings and such.) Strangely enough, a couple of weeks later, we got an offer. It wasn't a stellar one, but we had pretty much resigned ourselves to accepting a not-as-great offer for the chance to finally get the heck outta Dodge.
Caroline and I spent several full days house hunting with our realtor. I counted one day and I took her in and out of the car 18 times. (Caroline, not the realtor. That would be weird.) We narrowed the field until we had about 5 houses that were our top choices, then Eric went to see those. There were a couple of decent options, but we both agreed that our favorite was a quaint Cape Cod in a great location. We saw it at least 4 times before making the offer (and I hereby apologize to the sellers for that). The offer was made and settled, but the poor sellers were quite gun shy - they'd almost closed on it shortly before that but the offer fell through at the eleventh hour. Literally, like the day before closing. Which worked out well for us, but I understand how frustrating it was for the sellers and how they didn't really believe we were seriously going to buy the house until we closed.
We were supposed to close on 12/17, but we had numerous delays related to our buyers. They had to redo their loan and all sorts of things that caused delays - they weren't their fault and they were still all in, but it was certainly frustrating. By the time everything was ready to close, it was actually January 7. We closed on our old house that morning in a bit of snowstorm. Luckily, our buyers were willing to let us stay in the house until the next evening, so we had time to move. The only teensy problem was that we weren't sure we could close on our new house yet and the sellers weren't willing to let us move in before closing, even though they were already moved out. (Their realtor advised them to not let us do that...bugger.) We were potentially going to be homeless for the weekend if we couldn't close until Monday. So we had closed on the old house and returned there and finally got a call around 1:00 that we could, in fact, get closed on the new house that afternoon at 3. WHEW! So we closed and spent one last night in the old house and officially moved in Saturday.
Did I mention that about a week before Thanksgiving, we'd found out I was pregnant with Charlotte? While we'd kept the news to ourselves, it certainly added another layer of stress to the whole thing!! It also meant I shouldn't be moving furniture or heavy boxes around. Luckily, we had several guys helping us move, so I was able to sit out the heavy lifting without anyone questioning me!
The next few weeks were crazy - getting unpacked and settled in a new home, Emily starting a new school (she started when they went back after Christmas break, just a few days before closing), and also planning for a baby. About 2 weeks after we moved, we found out she was a she and also shared the news with the world. I felt compelled to get everything possible done around the house before the baby arrived, so I spent the rest of winter and spring organizing, painting, etc. By the time baby arrived in June, it felt like we'd been here forever.
We love our new house and it's in a great location, close to everything and convenient to nearly everywhere we go. It was a terrible ordeal of real estate horrors, but we made it through and we're very happy with the end result. Every day I am thankful that we have a comfortable, cozy home I love in a great neighborhood, we have awesome neighbors, I can get to Target in 3 minutes and I do not have to prepare the house for showings all the time. Hallelujah!!!!
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Monday, October 14, 2013
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Real Estate Saga...
When I read other people's blogs, I sometimes get irked with them for not posting more often. How bad is that, when it's been a full month since I posted?! I'm sorry, fellow bloggers!!! May is a crazy month, but now school is out and summer ennui is setting in.
So I'm going rant and feel sorry for myself for a few minutes. Here's my family's pitiful, wretched real estate saga. Feel sorry for us, we sure do! :)
My family has spent two years trying to sell a house no one wants to buy. We’ve watched helplessly as several nearly-perfect-for-us houses have come on the market and then been sold to someone else. We’ve repeatedly felt like we were missing the boat and we’ve been disappointed time and again.
Our real estate saga began in May 2008. Having pestered my husband about moving practically since the day we moved into our house in almost four years earlier, he finally agreed that we should put it on the market. We’d had enough of the steep backyard and being fifteen minutes away from nearly every place we go, including work. We wanted our kids to be in the best local school system, and we wanted a yard where they could have a swing set. So, with a two-month-old baby and a preschooler, we packed up as much extra clutter as possible and put it in storage, and put the house on the market. We had high hopes of moving before school started in the fall. Ha. The wait began...we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Keeping a house semi-ready to show to potential buyers is not an easy task in general, but adding two small, messy children to the mix makes it even tougher. (At least we don’t have pets, right?) Getting ready for a showing is a process that usually takes a few hours rather than a few minutes. Not so bad if it’s just a few weeks, but spending two years living in that state of limbo has been downright torturous. Now, I know that in this economy, we are just lucky to have a house to live in and to be able to pay for it; I don’t mean to sound like an ingrate. But nonetheless, the uncertainty and the stress have taken their toll.
After a year on the market, we replaced much of our aging carpet with hardwood flooring, in hopes that would help. It didn’t, though it certainly looks nice. We dropped our asking price several times, to as low as we could possibly go and still afford a new house. We fired our first realtor and hired a new one last fall. She has done a great job of advertising and making us feel like important clients, but still - no sale. We had one offer, back in October - it was laughably low and didn’t work out. Then last month, we had a first: someone came back for a second time to see the house. This buyer (a young single gal) came with her father and they spent well over an hour here. (I know because after taking the kids to McDonald’s for an ice cream, we sat in the car down the street staking out the scene and waiting to be able to come back home. There’s not many places to go to kill time around here, and that way we‘d know for sure when they were finished.)
She made an offer that night.
It wasn’t a good one.
So, we began the process of countering, and just before her deadline to respond to us, our realtor called and explained the numerous financial roadblocks our buyer was encountering. She’s only approved to borrow a sum that’s about $25k less than our asking price, even though she can afford the monthly payments based on her income. So we waited more.
After nearly 2 weeks of waiting, she finally gave up and withdrew from the deal, because she simply didn't have and couldn't get the money she needed, despite the fact that she really loved this house. So, we're back to square one yet again, 2 years and a month in. In a couple of weeks, we're having the carpet on our stairs replaced, and we're having all the main living areas repainted. They're a neutral color now, but a fresh coat of a more modern color (it's just a beige, nothing fancy) might spruce it up a bit. But the bottom line is we only have about 2 months until school starts back and we need to move by then. If we don't, my hubby is quite persistent in his belief that we should give up. Bah.
So, the ordeal that is our real estate life continues, and continues to make me slightly insane. I’m tired of this house consuming my time and spending time on it that I should be spending on my kids. Those kiddos of mine are now 2 and 7. Two years of their lives have been consumed by this ordeal. I’m tired of having half of my belongings in storage, and I’m tired of having very few of my beloved pictures displayed. I want to keep my house reasonably clean and orderly because I like it that way, not because I have to meet someone else’s standards. I want my life back.
Ok...pity party is over for today. I have to go clean the house.
So I'm going rant and feel sorry for myself for a few minutes. Here's my family's pitiful, wretched real estate saga. Feel sorry for us, we sure do! :)
My family has spent two years trying to sell a house no one wants to buy. We’ve watched helplessly as several nearly-perfect-for-us houses have come on the market and then been sold to someone else. We’ve repeatedly felt like we were missing the boat and we’ve been disappointed time and again.
Our real estate saga began in May 2008. Having pestered my husband about moving practically since the day we moved into our house in almost four years earlier, he finally agreed that we should put it on the market. We’d had enough of the steep backyard and being fifteen minutes away from nearly every place we go, including work. We wanted our kids to be in the best local school system, and we wanted a yard where they could have a swing set. So, with a two-month-old baby and a preschooler, we packed up as much extra clutter as possible and put it in storage, and put the house on the market. We had high hopes of moving before school started in the fall. Ha. The wait began...we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Keeping a house semi-ready to show to potential buyers is not an easy task in general, but adding two small, messy children to the mix makes it even tougher. (At least we don’t have pets, right?) Getting ready for a showing is a process that usually takes a few hours rather than a few minutes. Not so bad if it’s just a few weeks, but spending two years living in that state of limbo has been downright torturous. Now, I know that in this economy, we are just lucky to have a house to live in and to be able to pay for it; I don’t mean to sound like an ingrate. But nonetheless, the uncertainty and the stress have taken their toll.
After a year on the market, we replaced much of our aging carpet with hardwood flooring, in hopes that would help. It didn’t, though it certainly looks nice. We dropped our asking price several times, to as low as we could possibly go and still afford a new house. We fired our first realtor and hired a new one last fall. She has done a great job of advertising and making us feel like important clients, but still - no sale. We had one offer, back in October - it was laughably low and didn’t work out. Then last month, we had a first: someone came back for a second time to see the house. This buyer (a young single gal) came with her father and they spent well over an hour here. (I know because after taking the kids to McDonald’s for an ice cream, we sat in the car down the street staking out the scene and waiting to be able to come back home. There’s not many places to go to kill time around here, and that way we‘d know for sure when they were finished.)
She made an offer that night.
It wasn’t a good one.
So, we began the process of countering, and just before her deadline to respond to us, our realtor called and explained the numerous financial roadblocks our buyer was encountering. She’s only approved to borrow a sum that’s about $25k less than our asking price, even though she can afford the monthly payments based on her income. So we waited more.
After nearly 2 weeks of waiting, she finally gave up and withdrew from the deal, because she simply didn't have and couldn't get the money she needed, despite the fact that she really loved this house. So, we're back to square one yet again, 2 years and a month in. In a couple of weeks, we're having the carpet on our stairs replaced, and we're having all the main living areas repainted. They're a neutral color now, but a fresh coat of a more modern color (it's just a beige, nothing fancy) might spruce it up a bit. But the bottom line is we only have about 2 months until school starts back and we need to move by then. If we don't, my hubby is quite persistent in his belief that we should give up. Bah.
So, the ordeal that is our real estate life continues, and continues to make me slightly insane. I’m tired of this house consuming my time and spending time on it that I should be spending on my kids. Those kiddos of mine are now 2 and 7. Two years of their lives have been consumed by this ordeal. I’m tired of having half of my belongings in storage, and I’m tired of having very few of my beloved pictures displayed. I want to keep my house reasonably clean and orderly because I like it that way, not because I have to meet someone else’s standards. I want my life back.
Ok...pity party is over for today. I have to go clean the house.
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